


Fandomtine Day 5: The Love Song of M. Rodney McKay

by Lyrstzha



Series: Fandomtine Project: A Litany in the Time of Plague [5]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Flash Fic, Getting Together, M/M, Pandemics, Quarantine, Resolved Sexual Tension, fandomtine project, lockdown - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:27:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29308794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyrstzha/pseuds/Lyrstzha
Summary: Perhaps being stuck together in lock down is actually the ideal time for John and Rodney to process a few things.
Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Series: Fandomtine Project: A Litany in the Time of Plague [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2152647
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39





	Fandomtine Day 5: The Love Song of M. Rodney McKay

**Author's Note:**

> The title is taken from T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." This is my answer to day 5 of the fandomtine meme: 5) One of your favorite pairings (or triads, or whatever) is quarantined together. Does this bring them closer, and maybe tip their UST into romance, if it wasn't already? Or does it create a less happy kind of friction?

Given the size of their quarantine apartment and the volume of Rodney's whisper-shouting, it's inevitable that John overhears Rodney talking to Sam on the phone. Talking to Sam isn't an unusual occurrence; ever since they've been in quarantine and Sam's been in emergency command of Atlantis, there's been a lot of calling back and forth. But the whisper-shouting is new.

“Yeah, okay, _no_ ,” Rodney hisses vehemently, and John, curiosity piqued, quietly sets his book aside and tiptoes closer to the closed bedroom door, as if that's even necessary. “I know what the quarantine regulation says, but if our flight from Toronto hadn't been delayed, we'd've made it back to Atlantis before lockdown. It was just two hours past the deadline! You can't tell me we're mysteriously more likely to be infected than anyone who came back two hours earlier.”

Sam must say something in response that Rodney doesn't much like, judging by the explosive, frustrated huff he lets out. John smiles a little, reflexively and irresistibly, able to picture perfectly what Rodney's face looks like in that moment.

“I'm just asking you to bend them! No, not even that – just to temper the blind red tape with some common sense, okay? This is ridiculous! And what if there's a crisis, have you thought of that? With us both stuck out here?”

Of course John has had this anxiety himself, but that's why he checks in with Atlantis every day multiple times. And he does zoom meditation sessions with Teyla in the mornings, and she always gives him her take on how Atlantis is doing at the end of each session. Plus, he's absolutely certain that an exception would be made if they were really needed. And it's not like they won't be able to go back soon, anyway. 

“Yeah, I _know_ ,” Rodney snaps. “I haven't forgotten you know how to science. But I'm the one who – ”

John knows both exactly what Rodney had been going to say and that Sam had known the same thing. He would have bet the farm on her biting that train of thought in the bud if he'd had the chance.

“No, of course not,” Rodney says after a minute in a more subdued tone. “No, I know.” Even more quietly, he says, “Of course I trust you. It isn't that.”

Instinctively, John leans closer, pressing his cheek against the door between them.

“It's...” Rodney falters to a pause. “You _know_ me,” he finally says. “Can you imagine being shut in a small apartment alone with me for weeks? Sheppard's joked about smothering me in my sleep, and it's all funny ha-ha and that little crooked grin, but I think there's some truth under there.”

John winces. Yeah, okay, Rodney can be a little overwhelming at first, but they're long past the time when John actually meant his complaints about Rodney annoying him when they spend time together. He hadn't meant for Rodney to take it seriously this time, and he only now realizes how much his ribbing had struck home. Shit.

“No, of course I don't care what people think about me,” Rodney sniffs disdainfully. “I barely have object permanence for most people. People are _morons_. If brainpower were electricity, most people couldn't even power an egg timer.” John can actually hear Rodney rolling his eyes. Much more quietly, Rodney adds, “Just, you know...not John.”

John actually holds his breath at that, and presses his cheek against the door so hard his jaw aches.

There is a pause, then Rodney smothers a choked-off sound in his throat. “No! I – I don't...that isn't what I...” he breaks off, and there is another agonizing pause. John's lungs start to burn. “How did you know?” Rodney finally whispers brokenly. “I never said anything, not to anybody, I never – ”

John starts breathing again, the rush in his head feeling like the best ferris wheel he has ever ridden. 

“But it's okay,” Rodney is whispering. “We're friends, and it's fine. It is. It's fine. I just don't want to have to see him desperate to get away from me.” Rodney sounds so miserable it hurts to hear him. “It's a miracle he doesn't hate me yet, if you want to know the truth. But this? This is going to do it for sure. We need to get _out_ of here, Sam. _Please_.”

John takes another breath, and he opens the door. Rodney gives a shrill squeak and drops the phone, actually staggering backward a little. His eyes are huge and horrified, and he is the _worst_ at subtle ever. John grins at him fiercely.

“You, ah...you didn't hear..?” Rodney fumbles, still edging away and staring like a deer caught in the headlights.

John bends down to pick up the phone. “Hi, Sam,” he says calmly into it. “We're just going to call you back in a bit, okay? Take care.” He hangs up to the sound of Sam's chuckle on the other end. He steps closer to Rodney, who backs further away and hits the wall, where he presses himself like he's trying to phase through it.

“It isn't...I mean, of course I don't expect anything, and I don't want to make you uncomfortable, and I get that trapped together in close quarters isn't the ideal time for you to process this, but in my defense, it's not like we're ever _not_ right in the middle of some emergency or other,” Rodney babbles, seemingly without pausing for breath. “And it's not like it's even my _fault_ , I mean _look_ at you, and you're this secret math whiz, and then there's that stupidly brave thing, and what is even _happening_ with your hair? How was I really supposed to...?” Rodney waves his hands at John, indicating pretty much the entire John-ness of him. “I mean, come _on_ , that's just _science_ , it's ridiculous to expect anybody to – ”

He breaks off abruptly as John grabs his face and swoops in to stop the rush of chatter with his mouth. He seals his lips over Rodney's and slides his tongue right into the spaces where words were going to be. All the deflections, all the babbling, all the self-deprecation and anxiety, it all unravels under the sure strokes of John's tongue into a small, shocked groan that John swallows down greedily. And yeah, John hasn't forgotten that the world's in crisis outside the shelter of these rooms, but it's not the kind of crisis he can fix by throwing himself in front of it, so for once John manages to let that go. He sucks Rodney's lower lip in between his teeth and rolls it there as his whole body grinds Rodney into the wall from lips to knees. When he finally breaks away just far enough to look Rodney in the eye, Rodney is gasping and blinking dazedly at him.

“I don't know,” John murmurs, grinning again. “Just you and me, no fires we need to put out, no crazy Pegasus shit. Seems kinda like the perfect time to me. You know, for _processing_.” He grins wider and darts in again to snicker into another kiss.

“Asshole,” Rodney mumbles against his mouth, garbled and warm and perfect. John had always suspected that he would love the taste of Rodney's snark, and he was so, so right.

John drags his lips down to nip at Rodney's jaw. “If you play your cards right,” he breathes into Rodney's skin.

“Nnngh,” Rodney groans out unintelligibly, squirming restlessly against the press of John's thigh between his legs, and he doesn't even seem to mind that John is laughing against his neck. “You should've...you should've _said_ , I...I really...” Rodney mumbles, punctuated by small gasps as John sucks a possessive mark into the skin of his throat.

John pulls back enough to look him in the eye again. “I know,” he says solemnly. His lips barely twitch. He waits.

Rodney just blinks at him for a second. “Hold up.” Rodney's eyes narrow suspiciously. “Did you just _Han Solo_ me?” He whacks the heel of one hand against John's shoulder. “Seriously?! That is not even what I was going to say! I _meant_ – ”

John grins and swoops in again to kiss the words off his lips. He laughs into Rodney's mouth again until Rodney is laughing breathlessly along with him, lips still managing to catch together like tiny sips of the strongest liquor. It feels like going three hundred miles an hour in all directions at once, and yet like suddenly sliding into the still center of a spin. 

“Yeah,” John says against Rodney's mouth with a purposeful swivel of his hips that drags the head of his imprisoned cock against Rodney's. “I knew what you meant.”

Rodney's hands clutch at the curve of John's ass and pull him in even tighter, fingers digging deliciously into the muscle. “Okay, yeah,” he whispers back, and kneads his hands a little as John shivers. “That's exactly what I meant.”

John catches at Rodney's hips to hold him still for a moment and pulls back to face him properly. It's brave, but he can do it. “Me too,” he says plainly, and lets the gravity of that stand for itself.

Rodney's eyes go wide again and his kiss-ripened mouth hangs open a little. “Oh,” he breathes, a tiny puff of surprise, and seems to be stuck in wonderment.

“Yes,” John says firmly, and he thinks that's just exactly what they both meant.


End file.
